Fresh AIR - Young Methodists in Guatemala

About an hour away from our hotel in Chimaltenango, across the rolling beautiful fields of cantaloupes and carnations meant for the US, is the mountain aldea of Chipata. It’s a wonderful ride: thick green foliage, hundreds of people and animals looking at us with amiable curiosity, and vistas from the tops of mountains to the mountains beyond and valleys below that makes you feel like the king or queen of the world. We stop about a mile away from our worksite at a nursery run by six women who have been working with AIR for six years. Throughout their partnership, these women have raised and planted more than a half a million trees, many of which were visible on our ride in. Doctora tells us to listen carefully, as these women are Kakchiquel Maya, and speak only a few words of Spanish. As Luis, our técnico, translates their story, the throat clicks and glottal stops of that ancient language is like nothing we’ve ever heard. Our worksite, we’re told, is much more suave than yest

After our travel day, we arose in our splendid hotel to greet the morning sunshine and with joy and anticipation. After a lovely (3 course!) breakfast, we met the technicos in the parking lot of the hotel. It was at this point that Dr. Hallum brought to our attention that some of us would have to ride in the truck beds as there were not enough seats for all of us. Well, still bright eyed, we had trouble fitting all of the people who wanted to ride in the truck beds. And let me tell you, you have not “done” Guatemala until you have ridden in a truck bed up and down the side of a mountain. It was so overwhelming I had to take a nap on the way there.             Our first stop was the AIR office where we got a tour and got to meet the staff. Dr. Hallum, who is our guide and has mentored many students over the years is the founder of AIR, but the real head honcho is the director, Ceci. She coordinates sites for the technicos from the office as well as keeps an eye on all of the various

Alright, first blog post of the trip! I have to say, waking up super early to make sure we made it to the airport by 4AM had me a bit concerned at first. Nobody truly wants to get up that early, and it can turn even the most chipper person a bit sour. But everyone rallied behind each other and we all had a very pleasant morning! We made jokes that were hardly funny, but due to the exhaustion we all felt had some of us laughing until we cried. We weren’t going to let the early morning get the best of us! Both the flight to Atlanta, and the subsequent flight to Guatemala City passed without incident, a relief to all after the long day. After getting through customs we made our way outside where our technicians José and Pedro-Miguel helped pack all our stuff and whisked us away to Finca La Loma, the hotel we’d spend a majority of our week in. Upon arrival we were stunned to see the sprawling complex of interconnected hotel rooms scattered about a large beautiful estate filled with bloomi

Thank you for visiting our blog! In two days, five college students from University UMC and the LSU Wesley Foundation, along with Revs. Colleen & Adam, will go on a mission to Guatemala to work with poor farmers who live in extreme poverty high up in the mountains. Due to deforestation, they face landslides and the erosion of their best soil, making the farms less productive and keeping them in poverty. We will work with the Alliance for International Reforestation (AIR), whose work reforests mountainsides and teaches agroforestry, which allows farmers to farm more productively, eliminate soil erosion, and even start small businesses and send their children to school. AIR is entirely Guatemalan-run, and our trip will be led by its founder and chair, Dr. Anne Hallum, who has been recognized as a CNN hero (and is one of Adam's mentors from college at Stetson University). Want more information on AIR, check out their website - http://airguatemala.org/ . We&#